


Truly Universal

by helsinkibaby



Series: Another Lifetime [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, canon divergences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 08:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9988550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Caitlin arrives back to the West house and feels like she's stepping back into the past.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For one million words February Bingo, prompt music

Sliding the key into the lock of the West house, Caitlin found herself thinking that she was glad to be home. It had been a successful day - another meta human threat averted - but it had been a long day that came on the end of a few long days, days of heightened emotions and little sleep. They were all tired tonight, she knew, but she also knew that she was tired for reasons beyond simply that. Still getting used to this new Earth, these new versions of the people she had known and loved and lost, the subtle differences had a way of sneaking up on her, stealing her breath as her heart hammered in her chest and she would have to clench her fists and breathe deeply and hope that no-one noticed because the last thing she wanted was for people to worry about her. 

So she was happy to be home, happy that she'd declined the invitation of the others to head for celebratory Chinese food at a restaurant not too far away from STAR Labs. All she really wanted to do was lie down and sleep, even if she didn't know what her dreams would bring. 

Of course, it turned out that her dreams had nothing on the nightmare that awaited her when she stepped inside the West house. 

She was hanging up her coat when the music registered with her. Donny Hathaway had been one of her Joe's favourite singers as well and he'd often played his music around the house. The song that was beginning just as Caitlin walked in had been one of his particular favourites. 

Caitlin hadn't listened to it in years. 

She turned slowly, expecting to see him there, but the couch was empty. Her gaze moved to the coffee table, and she'd never been so glad to see a single bottle of beer there. Just as she was processing that, she heard his voice coming from the direction of the kitchen, becoming louder as he spoke. 

"That you, Iris?" Rooted to the spot, she couldn't move so she was looking right at him when he came around the corner and saw her. Which meant she got the full effect of the smile that spread across his face when he saw her there. 

And just like that, the world shimmered and shifted around her and it was just like her memories, just like her dreams. Just like all the times she'd come back to this house but not this house, all the times she'd been bone tired from the work they'd been doing at STAR Labs, trying to get the particle accelerator up and running, all the times that he'd met her at the foot of the stairs, that very smile on his face as he'd taken her in his arms and kissed her warmly. All the times he'd poured her a glass of wine and curled up on the couch with her, the heat of the roaring fire nothing compared to the heat that grew between them. All the times he'd cooked her dinner, all the times he'd run her a bath, all the times he'd loved each and every one of her worries away. 

"Caitlin?"

The word broke through her memories, or rather the way it was uttered did. She was remembering the gentle tones of her lover, the way he'd made her name sound like a caress. Tonight though, her name was said with wary caution and when she looked at him, there was a frown on his face that her Joe had rarely had when he looked at her. 

"Sorry," she said, forcing a smile to her face as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I zoned out for a minute there." 

His frown didn't lift. If anything, it intensified. "Long day, huh?" She took a deep breath and nodded. "Iris called, said you were all going out... I wasn't expecting you back til later." 

"I decided to take a rain check, I'm pretty tired," she said and as she started talking, something suddenly occurred to her. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Because, single bottle of beer notwithstanding, the fire was high, Donny was on the stereo and she was sure she could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen, and those had been the hallmarks of many of their nights in. 

"Why would you-" Joe's face showed his confusion but then it cleared and his jaw dropped. "No, no, not at all." With his eyes wide, there was no way he wasn't telling her the truth and though she knew it wasn't her place, Caitlin couldn't ignore the surge of relief that flooded through her. 

Still though, she couldn't let him see that. That wasn't her place. "I'm sorry," she said weakly. "It's just..." Words failed her and she looked down, horrified to find tears coming into her eyes. 

Joe was moving towards the stereo. "You want peace and quiet... Let me turn this off..."

"No!" The word was out before she had time to think and he froze, looked at her with surprise. Pressing her lips together, she threw caution to the wind. "I love this song." 

"Yeah?" Joe glanced at the stereo, then back to her. There was a smile in his voice when he asked her, "You got Donny Hathaway on your earth too?" 

Caitlin closed her eyes, let the familiar voice - both of them - soothe her. "He is apparently truly universal," she said and when she opened her eyes, it was so hard to believe she wasn't right back at home. "As is Joe West's appreciation of him." 

"Yeah?" His voice was softer now and maybe he was reading between the lines of her reaction because he held her gaze for a long, long moment where her heart hammered in her ears because once upon a time, her Joe had looked at her like that. 

He looked away first, swallowing hard and gesturing to the kitchen. "You hungry? I cooked... One of my grandmother's recipes, chicken and noodles..."

Of course it was, Caitlin thought, because the universe, apparently both of them, hated her just that much. That was her favourite of Grandma Esther's recipes, the one that her Joe would have made her on a night like this and there was nothing more she wanted than to sit down and have some now. 

But to do that would be blurring the lines between her past and her present just a little bit too much and she knew that the way she was feeling right now, she wouldn't be able to handle that. 

So she shook her head, ran her tongue over her suddenly dry lips. "I think I'm just going to go to bed." His face fell a little and she turned before she could say something she'd regret - or more to the point, something that she wouldn't. 

She was halfway up the stairs before his voice stopped her. "Caitlin," he said but nothing more and she gripped the bannister tightly so that she wouldn't turn back around and do something crazy like launch herself at him and throw herself into his arms. Granted, it hadn't worked out badly the first time she'd done it, but that was another time, another earth, another man. 

She didn't move, didn't breathe, just waited for him to speak again and when he did, it was with a sigh. "Good night." 

When her Joe had had that tone in his voice, it meant that what he was saying wasn't necessarily what he wanted to say, but since Caitlin knew she couldn't handle anything else, she didn't question it. 

Instead she hurried upstairs and closed the door of her room behind her, laid down on the bed and let herself cry.


End file.
